Palestinians set up outpost near West Bank Bedouin village due to be razed

Times of Israel staff write, “Palestinian activists have set up five shipping containers near a Bedouin hamlet to protest the expected razing of the West Bank encampment by Israel.

Activist Abdallah Abu Rahmeh said Tuesday that setting up the white shipping containers near Khan al-Ahmar, one with a Palestinian flag, is a message to Israel that “it’s our right to build on our land.”

The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem announced Saturday it had written to the European Union to ask that it intervene to prevent the demolition of the village, which is slated to occur as early as Wednesday.”…

“Right-wing Israeli activists clashed Friday with residents of the village. In footage taken by local Bedouins and Palestinian activists, the residents of the village could be seen exchanging angry shouts with the Israelis from the Im Tirzu organization in a passageway under the Route 1 highway leading to the ramshackle village.”…

“In the beginning of that month, the state had begun its preparations to raze the hamlet, where none of the structures have been granted permits. Security forces were deployed to the village and construction workers began paving an access road that would facilitate the demolition and evacuation.

The state says the structures, mostly makeshift shacks and tents, were built without permits and pose a threat to the village residents because of their proximity to a highway. But the villagers — who have lived at the site, then controlled by Jordan, since the 1950s, after the state evicted them from their Negev homes — argue that they had little alternative but to build without Israeli construction permits, as such permits are almost never issued to Palestinians for building in parts of the West Bank, such as Khan Al-Ahmar, where Israel has full control over civilian affairs.” (More…)